


A Revelation In The Light Of Day

by Hawkgay



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Cannibalism, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Graphic Description of Corpses, Graphic descriptions of gore, M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Whump, a new one for me, except Ben doesn't die in this one, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 02:30:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20734784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkgay/pseuds/Hawkgay
Summary: During a mission, Klaus waits outside with the others as Ben deals with the threat inside. The sounds of the Horror’s rampage become too hard for Klaus to ignore. Gathering his courage, he goes inside and ends up confronting the thing that used to be his brother.





	A Revelation In The Light Of Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eroticcannibal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eroticcannibal/gifts).

> A birthday present for my best friend and brother Erotic Cannibal, I hope you like it cause damn I went hard on this

Halfway up a squat stone staircase leading to a crumbling ivy-covered church, Klaus watched the thick wooden door swung shut with a definitive thump. With bated breath, he listened as the silence was broken by the chilling sound of blood-curdling screaming coming from deep within the building. The spell broke as something slammed hard against the other side of the door, Klaus flinched and inhaled some of the crisp autumn air. Unable to bear the noise, he moved down a step and turned twisted himself away from the entranceway. Several feet from Klaus, Luther and Allison stood huddled together with their heads bowed. Both of them pretending they weren’t complicit in persuading Ben into committing the atrocity currently happening inside. Nearby, Diego, the only other person who seemed to care at all about the ongoing massacre, kept his gaze fixed forward. A hand resting on one of his knives he gripped tightly onto the handle as a front window broke and showered the sidewalk with a kaleidoscope of glass. His guilt apparent at staying silent while Ben risked everything to end the mission.

  
The four remaining members of the Umbrella Academy had together allowed the Horror from its human prison, and the knowledge rested heavily on Klaus’s conscience.

  
The minutes passed by at a snail’s pace as the sounds of things breaking and slamming against the door lingered on. Though the screams had stopped almost immediately after Ben entered the church. Anxiety ate away at Klaus’s insides as he screwed his eyes shut to block out the world. Recently Ben had confided in him that he was having trouble reigning in and controlling the Horror. The times on missions where his powers were needed taking longer as his slaughter became more violent in nature. Losing himself further to a destructive force way beyond his abilities to wield and maybe one day there wouldn’t be anything left of Ben, just the Horror unrestrained to revel in its devastation on the world. To have that knowledge and unable to confront the toll of another massacre on Ben’s face stopped Klaus waiting on the sidelines as his brother damaged himself.

  
Turning back to the door, Klaus opened his eyes and stared at the knot covered wood. Breathing in deeply, he took a small step up the stairs and towards the church. Out of nowhere, something snagged onto the fabric of the arm of his jumpsuit and stopped him from moving forward. Looking over his shoulder, Klaus found Diego was the one holding him back. Jaw clenched shut he clutched tightly onto the bunch of fabric in his hand and tried to pull him back. Klaus barely acknowledged his brother as he yanked his arm away hard from Diego’s grip. Dislodged Diego lost his footing and toppled backwards, landing on his ass at the bottom of the steps.

  
Diego already forgotten about Klaus’s concentration returned forwards, climbing the last stair and finally reached the imposing oak door. A hand wrapped around the iron ring handle he pushed at the solid wood. It refused to budge, something on the other side was blocking it from opening. He dropped the iron ring and instead pressed both palms against the rough surface, putting all his strength through them he managed to shift the door inwards by a small gap. As it opened a stream of blood gushed out the newly made crack and dripped sluggishly down the stairs. This portent of things to come did not stop Klaus as he slid his body inside and let the door close behind him.

  
Klaus gawked at the ruined shambles of the formally grand church hall. The pews which once lined the central aisle had become a part of the collateral damage, smashed to pieces they sat in piles of splintered wood and torn cushions. Pages of the bibles usually underneath the seats of the pews floated through the air like blood-stained angel’s feathers, drifting downwards until they landed onto the floor. Splatters of crimson covered the smooth stone walls and the stained glass windows depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. The life-sized figure of Christ on the cross suspended above the altar had also been hit by the viscera, making Jesus’s face seem even more pained as drip trickles of blood dripped from his crown of thorns. Nothing was untouched by the gore caused by Ben’s path of destruction.

  
The floor was a mess of scattered limbs, discarded organs and ropes of intestines with halos of red surrounding them. Alone on the single-step before the altar, Ben was knelt over something with his back to the entrance and Klaus. Jumpsuit and hair saturated in a mixture of blood and gore Ben shivered like an abused puppy, his mind far away to notice his brother. Klaus checked around the room and spotted no signs of the Horror, sure he was in no danger he started towards Ben to comfort and help him.

  
Walking down the aisle, Klaus skirted around the various puddles of blood and mangled bits of flesh. Until near the end, he reached one that spanned the entire width of the pathway with a human-sized mass of meat in the centre. The pews nearby were all twisted beyond stability which stopped Klaus climbing over to avoid it. Bracing himself, Klaus put one foot down gently into the crimson liquid and found it tacky under his boot. Slowly he began to walk across the pool of blood and carefully circumvented around the mutilated corpse laid out in the middle.

  
Almost on the other side, Klaus’s boot crunched on a mound of something which squeaked underfoot as he lost his balance and slipped. A bunch of teeth rattled away as he grabbed hold of a still-standing pew end to save himself from falling. The sound echoed through the vast chamber and alerted Ben to Klaus’s presence.

  
He looked up and scanned the room until he discovered the source of the disturbance. Gaze firmly fixed on Klaus an inhuman smirk crept over Ben’s lips, showing far too many teeth than a usual smile should do. It unnerved Klaus to his very core. It wasn’t the one he associated with his brother, hidden behind it was an alien malevolence abnormal to Ben. More of a grimace of a predator than a genuine smile of relief at seeing Klaus.

With Ben distracted, Klaus took the chance to look past his brother and finally got a glimpse of the thing he was bent over. Barely recognisable as anything more than a lump of bloody raw flesh the remnants of a human corpse laid beside Ben’s knees. Teeth marks littered the surface of the chest and neck of the former person while their abdomen had burst open like some kind of sick piñata. It didn’t take a mathematician for Klaus to put two and two together at what he’d interrupted Ben doing.

  
Klaus opened his mouth only to discover nothing would come out as he back away from Ben. He tripped over the blood-covered mass he’d forgotten was behind him. He put his palms out to lessen the impact and landed hard onto his ass. Coagulated blood began to seep through the bottom of his jumpsuit trouser legs as Ben finally stood up. Inky black tentacles erupted out of Ben’s shoulder blades and shredded the back of his own jumpsuit. The sound of tearing fabric was unbelievably loud in the almost silent church, as the silky smooth appendages twisted together into two wing-shaped forms and grasped around whatever purchase they could find. The tentacles lifted Ben off his feet and carried him closer to Klaus.

  
Frozen in place Klaus watched on in horror as a tentacle wrapped itself around his wrist and pulled him off the ground. The force was more than sufficient to yank his arm painfully out the shoulder socket. The appendage brought Klaus inches away from Ben’s face. Close enough for Klaus to see the blood staining his brother’s lips and chin as well as the bits of human flesh stuck in his teeth. Klaus refused to give the Horror the satisfaction of a response by crying out as his arm twisted while he swayed in its loose grip. Klaus didn’t bother to beg for the return of his brother, there was no point. When lost to his monster, Ben couldn’t hear the outside world.

  
He stared into the eyeholes of the mask still affixed to Ben’s face and knew the only hope of waking his brother from his living nightmare was touch. His free hand shook as Klaus reached out to cup the curve of Ben’s left cheek, frightened past sanity he was stead-fast at bringing his brother back from the brink. As his fingers faintly brushed against the skin, the tentacle holding Klaus up flung him like a flimsy rag doll to one side.

  
Klaus landed onto a clear patch of ground and hit it with a sickening thump. He knocked the back of his skull against the cold stone as he came to a complete stop. Darkness descended over his vision as Klaus closed his eyes and lost consciousness.

  
After what could’ve been only a few seconds or even minutes Klaus’s eyelids flickered open. Blinded by the light streaming through a window and straight into his light-sensitive eyes, he remained laid out on the cold stone floor. He turned his head to one side and spat out a bright red streak of bloody spit, the inside of his cheek throbbed from where he’d bitten it when he’d collided with the ground. Gingerly Klaus sat up and nearly vomited as the world span around him, he definitely had a concussion. He touched the back of his head and winced, he brought his fingers back into view and inspected them. Blood was smeared on the tips of the digits. Yup, definitely a concussion.

The sharp spike of pain in his left arm snapped Klaus out of his stupor. It told him that he’d done something worse than just dislocating his shoulder. Carefully he used his left hand to probe at his upper arm and figured out he’d broken his humerus in two places. Finished with the inventory of his wounds, Klaus removed his mask and threw it to one side. Finally, he looked at Ben and watched as his brother picked up his kill with his mass of writhing tentacles. He continued to feast on his unholy communion while the Horror’s otherworldly limbs mutilated it further.

  
Unwilling to give up entirely on Ben, Klaus struggled to his feet and surged forwards. Bracing his bad arm with his good, he stopped when he reached just below Ben. Without warning splatters of blood and viscera rained down on Klaus as the tentacles finally pulled the body to pieces. Baptised in gore Klaus stared up at the towering figure above him. His brother had gained the dual appearance of a devil dragged from the deepest pits of hell, and an angel plucked out of the highest reaches of heaven. The sight filled Klaus a reverent fear and the knowledge to bring back Ben he needed to prostrate himself at the feet of the Horror and worship it.

  
Noticing the interloper of his feast, Ben lowered himself with the tentacles until he was at eye level with Klaus. Within arms reach Klaus took the chance and leapt forward to grab hold of Ben. His good arm wrapped around Ben’s neck Klaus felt something tug at the collar of his jumpsuit. Tightening his embrace, he struggled to keep his grip as a tentacle attempted to knock loose Klaus from their master. He pulled himself to Ben’s ear, Klaus managed to whisper through gritted teeth as tears streamed down his face.

“Come back to me,” Klaus begged, “Please Ben.”

Ben stilled as the Horror slackened its hold on the neck of Klaus’s suit. Strength completely spent Klaus’s arm gave up the ghost as he started to slip downwards. Ben broke out of his fugue state and clung onto Klaus for dear life and propped him up.

  
The tentacles lowered Ben and Klaus the couple of inches to the cold floor before they retracted back to their home dimension in a blink of an eye. Both of them collapsed onto their knees, and Klaus barely winced as Ben held him in a vice-like grip. His brother nestled himself in the nook of Klaus’s shoulder and sobbed a mixture of relief and abject horror at his own actions. Smiling through the pain, Klaus stroked Ben’s hair with his good hand, thanking the universe for his brother’s restoration. He hadn’t lost Ben to the Horror today, Klaus knew distantly next time the both of them might not be as lucky. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this please leave a comment/kudos, it's my birthday and that's the best gift I could receive.


End file.
